Ole Miss signs 25, but misses on big fish

Biggest miss: Horn Lake’s Nakobe Dean signs with Georgia

OXFORD, MS (WLBT) - Ole Miss' 2019 recruiting class will be the first in years signing from out under the shadows of NCAA scholarship reductions and a postseason bowl ban. But it also will be without some of its top in-state targets.

The start of the early signing period ended in disappointment for the Rebels when Horn Lake star linebacker Nakobe Dean announced he would be signing with Georgia live on national television. Dean says Ole Miss finished second.

“It was close with Ole Miss. It’s just hard saying no to them," Dean told reporters.

Dean added, “At the end of the day, I’m going to represent Mississippi wherever I go.”

NEWS | Ole Miss inked 25 new Rebels in the early signing period, including 11 mid-year enrollees who will join the fold for spring practice. Welcome to the Rebel Family!

Jackson Academy quarterback Kinkead Dent also signed with Ole Miss. He’ll join the Rebels for the spring semester next month as an early enrollee. Dent told WLBT he’s grown up in an Ole Miss family and has been going to games in Oxford for much of his life.

“It means the world,” said Dent of signing with Ole Miss. “I’ve grown up in Oxford being around the games, sitting in the stands at Vaught-Hemingway (Stadium). I just knew it was the right place and I just knew that I could make a difference at Ole Miss.”

China Lee

Matt Wallner lined a two-run home run over the right-field fence, completing an improbable five-run rally over the final two innings Wednesday night as Southern Miss walked off a 6-4 victory in the opening round of the 2019 Conference USA Baseball Championship at MGM Park.